


Siren

by Cfae8



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-08-23 06:42:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20238439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cfae8/pseuds/Cfae8
Summary: I mean, this is really only on here for my best friend to be able to read it without five hundred back and fourth emails, but, this is based on our co-authored book, and is an AU i thought of. So, read if you want, I think it's good, but it might not make sense lol. Enjoy





	1. The Sea

The wind was cold against jack's neck as he watched the last sliver of land disappear below the horizon. The grin that spread across his face was lively with glee, and with a laugh and a _Whoop!_ he was swinging down the nets that led to his perch. He was finally away. Most of the lads aboard this ship were runaways, bastards, and orphans all just looking to make some silver, and jack couldn't say he was any different. Finally being free of the land that had held them down, well, it brought a smile to all the men's faces that day. With the smell of salt in his nose, and nothing but ship and ocean filling his view, Jack finally felt free.

_..._

_She was gone. His last remaining family, stolen by the same drunken bastard who'd beat them for digging through his rubbish bins as children._

_They'd had good luck that day, managing to lift more than a few fat wallets from a few even fatter business men. It wasn't as easy as lifting some jewelry from some townhouse while no one was home, but having hard cash was a lot easier to manage then having to play tag with the shady jewelers, and haggling for the best price. The brother and sister worked well together, like they'd been doing this all their lives, and really, they had. That night they were able to lay down with food in their bellies, and the thought to lay low for the next couple of days. Jack didn't expect to be woken by the sounds of his sisters screams, didn't expect to be fighting a man that was twice his size and trying to kill them both._

_Kuschi's scream before her head hit the hard stone wall of their basement was all he could remember, because the next thing he saw was pure red all around him, until the only thing he saw was the red blood staining his hands. Numbly, he moved to his sister's limp body, gently shaking her, then more roughly when she didn't respond. "K-Kuschi- Kuschi come on, wake up, someone probably heard and fetched the constable, we have to go- Kuschi- Kuschi-!"_

_Then, he broke._

_He sobbed for what felt like an eternity, and seemed like hours, but, eventually, he stopped. When he picked up her corpse, he paid no mind to the gruesome remains of her killer. He moved fast through the night, and buried her next to their mother under the apple grove they had both so loved, just in time to watch the sunrise. Watching the rising hues of red and orange, he sat beneath the apple blossoms and over their graves, and cried._

_Soon though, he knew he had to move. So he wiped his eyes, and started back to the basement. He'd leave the man's body, let the rodents and pests take care of it until someone smelled it. But he grabbed their sparse belongings and their cash, bagged it up, and set off. Once the body was found, his neighbors wouldn't think twice before ratting him out. He had to be far away from this town once that happened. With no idea were to go, he just followed the river._

_Soon, the river became clearer, and the smell of salty air was invading his senses. By the time he could actually see the cost, he knew what he was going to do. He wasn't done mourning, but he was angry, and the best thing when he was angry, he had learned, was to do something with it. He'd find his own way. Now he just needed to find a ship._


	2. Voyage

Two weeks into their voyage, the novelty of sailing the open sea had faded away for most, leaving nothing but the reality of sailing. But not for Jack. The cold had never bothered him, and growing up in the slums by the river meant he was used to the damp cold that plagued the men aboard _The Titaness._ The retired military vessel was hardly built for comfort, and the mostly green men of her crew were learning that the hard way. But even in the worst thunderstorm they'd encountered yet, Jack hadn't been scared, he'd been _exhilarated_. The sea, he learned, was a wild, powerful thing, and he was quickly becoming enraptured with its terrifying beauty. While not all days had been busy ones, he found ways to kept himself occupied. Even in the lightest of winds he could find a chore to do, or a question of navigation to ask the helmsman.

Derek, as jack soon learned the helmsman's, and _captain's,_ name was, was quite the interesting man. He wasn't much older than jack himself, maybe only 25, but his knowledge of the sea seemed endless, and jack was beginning to catch on that he wasn't the only one of who had lost someone important to them. But his budding friendship with the captain had some merit, he learned the maps quickly, and began to understand how the currents were affecting their route, making it impossible to sail straight for the northern colonies as they'd like, and making them have to choose between the frigid route to the far north, or risk the pirates to the south. When asked what he would do, jack faltered, knowing he should say north, but knowing they would also be risking ice bergs. As he pondered, the grin that grew on Derek's face gave away his mischief, and he soon pointed out that he had discovered a third route, one that went through a sea of dense seaweed. It would be slower, but less dangerous than either the north or south, and still faster than taking a straight shot to their destination.

There was one downside to this route though, and it was the stories of drunken sailors who'd seen the dense brown forest floating atop the water, and believed it land. They'd walked right overboard to their deaths, helpless as the plants entangled their legs, condemning them to a watery grave. The captain knew these stories all too well, he'd seen more than one man go over. And try as he might to keep the men from drinking during that leg of the journey, it also tended to be the most boring, and as the saying goes, _time flies when you're having rum._

_..._

Another two weeks and they're stuck in the middle of the sea, dense seaweed surrounding them and the wind hardly blowing a hair on their heads. The heat is what gets to them before the boredom, the men are irritable, and even the captain seemed frustrated. Every night he and jack searched the stars and poured over Derek's maps and charts. In the past three days, they'd barely even drifted.

While jack wasn't one to let the conditions get to him as quickly as the rest of the crew, they do eventually. And as he checked off chores to do and questions to ask, his mind began to drift back towards his home. Towards his family, and towards his sister. With his mood slowly dampening, he spent more and more time staring at the sea.

The first time he sees something in the seaweed, he's sure it's just a fish.

The second time he see's something, it's a head slipping below the seaweed just as he turns towards it.

Jumping back and whipping his head around, he quickly saw that none of the crew had gone over-board, and no one else seemed to have saw someone in the water.

He puts it off as a hallucination, a trick of the light on his overheated, incredibly bored mind.

But he can't shake the feeling of being watched.


	3. Her

It's the fog that finally gets to their heads.

On their fifth day stuck above the underwater forest, they wake up to a fog thicker than the smoke from a hefty cigar, and can barely see one side of the ship from the other.

_A young man sailed o'r the blue sea,_

_With a ship t'was not his own_

_He heard a young lass singing,_

_And followed the sound below,_

Jack had no idea where the song replaying in his head had come from, but all he could seem to remember were the first few lines. As the day drew on, it was only adding to his irritation with the weather. He didn't quite realize the song wasn't only coming from his mind.

"Oi! Jack!"

He turned his head towards Derek, who was shouting his name from the helm.

"Yea cap'n?"

Derek grinned.

"If they can't see the seaweed, they can't think it's dirt. The hell with this, get Jonathan to help you bring the barrel of good mead up on deck!"

A grin spread across his face. He was done with all this sitting and waiting.

"Ay captain!"

...

Not two hours later, the whole of the crew, save for Jack and Derek, were completely and utterly shitfaced drunk. And while the two boys were also rather tipsy, they each knew their limits, and stopped before the next morning would become unpleasant for them. Hangovers were a terrible thing when the only food you could eat was rice, salted pork, and hard lemonade.

Once again that day, Jack found himself singing the melody that had caught in his head. Maybe one of the other sailors had been humming it in their bunks the night before. He sung quietly to the sunset, and to focused on the song to realize it was being continued.

_There he found the maiden,_

_Who lives in the ebbs and flows._

_He called to her as she listened,_

_From a ring of seaweed red._

_Come with me my maiden,_

_Come from thy wat'ry bed._

_She looked at him serenely,_

_and only shook her head._

Jack smiled as he swayed to the music, and suddenly it hit him. He hadn't been singing. Nor had any of the crew. He'd been hearing the sound out loud, and it had been a woman's voice.

With his eyes wide, he looked to Derek, and the other man seemed to have come to the same conclusion. Something was _wrong._ Seconds later, realization crossed Derek's face, and jack stared confused as he ran to the ship's edge and looked over. When his captain's face paled, jack knew something must be really, really wrong.

Following Derek to the gunnel, Jack looked down to the water below, and in it was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Her hair was cut short, only hanging to her shoulders, but it was darker than the sky on a moonless night. Her eyes were wide, unnaturally large brown irises with pitch-black pupils blown wide stared into his own drunkenly hazy eyes. And her lips, accustomed to saltwater, looked swollen and soft, as if she'd just been kissing some other unfortunate sailor. She grinned, and her eyes never left Jack's.

"Danie..."

The name fell off the captain's lips like a wish, and it was the last thing Jack heard before a fist connected with his jaw.

...

He awoke in the captain's office, specifically, in the captain's hammock. Across the office, Derek was sitting at his desk, sipping a glass of dark whiskey. That wasn't good. The captain _never_ drank alone in his office, he only ever poured a half glass out of courtesy when discussing business at ports; not to mention that the captain hardly _ever_ let anyone into his office. Though, the fact that he was in the captain's office and not on the deck meant that someone must've carried him, and with everyone drunk off their asses on deck, that left the captain as the only candidate. A blush crawled up Jacks neck and cheeks as he eyed Derek's arms, he _was_ stronger than jack gave him credit for. And hey, jack wasn't in love with his captain or anything, but there was nothing wrong with entertaining the fact that the other man was more attractive than was really fair.

Then his eyes fell on the man's hands, and instead of remembering a familiar fantasy that involved those strong tattooed hands, jack remembered that the reason Derek had to carry him here in the first place. Was it really necessary to knocked him out?! and all because they saw that girl...

Jack didn't really ponder the fact that she was in the water.

When he tried to move the muscles in his left cheek, he flinched. No doubt his jaw was bruised. If Derek broke something, he wasn't going to hear the end of it from jack for a long time.

Derek looked back.

"You're awake."

"No shit sally. Did you really have to knock me out?"

Derek shrugged.

"Maybe not, but it was probably for the best. You're alive, aren't you?"

He couldn't argue that logic.

They were silent for a moment, Derek staring at the wall behind jack with lidded eyes.

"Who's Danie?"

Normally the captain had a wonderful poker face, but Derek's eyes went wide at the question. Quickly, he tried to cover it with a blank expression.

"Danny the cook?"

Jack narrowed his eyes.

"Don't play dumb. There was a girl–" he trailed off, and the look on Derek's face was nothing short of grim expectancy.

"In the water..." jack trailed off.

"Mhm," Derek agreed.

"Derek, how was there a girl in the water? We're in the middle of the sea–"

"Swear not to tell the rest of the crew and I'll tell you."

Jack didn't miss a beat.

"I swear."

Derek nodded.

"Her name is Danie, and she's my sister," his face paled a little for a moment, "or at least she used to be. And she's a siren."


	4. Siren

Jack laughed. That was ridiculous, sirens weren't real.

Except, Derek wasn't laughing.

And really, what boy from the slums _didn't_ know that you should never go into the public gardens at night? They never said the word _Faery_, but everybody knew that's what it was.

Besides, he'd seen her already. The strange tail beneath the waves, the head slipping below the surface, one that looked too little like a seal and too much like a person for comfort. Slowly, he pieced it together.

Holy shit.

Derek had a siren for a sister. And, jack soon realized, he'd been hearing her song all day. Shit, had he been about to die? is that why Derek had knocked him out? Why would she attack her own brother's ship? Unless being a siren made her not care about her own family?

"Jack, calm down man, you're rambling"

Oh. whoops.

"I said all that out loud, didn't I"

"Yes, you did, and no, she doesn't normally target the men on my ship. But then again the men on my ship aren't usually all simultaneously piss drunk and singing shanties at night in this part of the sea."

"But if she doesn't target your ship, why has she been following us for the past week?"

Suddenly, Derek was on the edge of his chair, alert.

"What do you mean following us for the past week?"

"I mean just that, since the winds stopped blowing I've been seeing something in the water, and I think it was her."

Derek took a second to process what he just heard, and his face slowly scrunched up, troubled.

”Jack, she’s _never_ done that before, since she– since she first learned my ship..."

Jack stared at his captain a moment, then shook his head.

"Wait, okay hold up. You're like, 25 years old and are already the captain of a trade ship, you know hidden safe routes through the middle of the ocean that no one else uses, you're tattooed head to toe, and you have a siren as a sister?! What does that even mean?! The only sirens I know of are legends of sea creatures that deceive sailor's eyes and sing about sex and love!"

"Well, kind of? They ARE beautiful, and they do sing, but it's not so much what they sing, but the fact that their song is magical. It hypnotizes people, and lures them into the water where the siren can drown them. It's their easiest meal, although they _can_ just eat fish if they really want to. They're incredible predators, especially Danie."

The noise that left jacks mouth wasn't really human as he whined in shock and frustration.

"HOW IS THAT **_THING_** YOUR SISTER THEN?!"

Derek looked down, his face scrunched up as if he were in pain, and jack suddenly regretted asking.

The captain looked up.

"Sorry for knocking you out earlier, but it was for your own good. Go back to your quarters Jack. Get some sleep. The winds have been picking up, it'll be all hands on deck tomorrow to get us the rest of the way through this sea. Goodnight."

The tone in Derek's voice was final, and Jack knew better than to argue. He'd seen the others get stuck on cleaning duty for a week at a time. He got up.

"Yes, captain."

(...)

Jack couldn't sleep.

He'd gone back to his hammock when he was asked, but sleep refused to take him. Not only had the wind picked up, but so had the waves, and as the boat rocked back and forth, he couldn't get the girl's face out of his head. The _Siren's_ face, his mind corrected. Danie. Captain Derek's sister, whom said captain wouldn't talk about beyond her being a siren.

_A young man sailed o'r the blue sea,_

_With questions running keen,_

_His love had hair like midnight_

_Her eyes, a too-real dream._

Slowly, Jack rose from his cot. Maybe some fresh air could help him get some rest.

When he opened the door to the main deck, the wind that immediately whipped across his face had him smiling. They'd be raising the sails come morning, and they could finally get to their western port. That night, the sky was clear and the quarter moon was shining bright. Walking towards the side of the ship, he took a deep breath. The smell of the salty air flooded his nose, and had he been more awake he would have laughed. This is why he fell in love with the sea. He'd only been a crewman of _The Titaness_ for the better part of a month, but it hardly mattered. He felt _free_ out here on the sea, and that was something he hadn't felt in far too long.

_She wrapped herself in beauty,_

_So young and so serene._

_There he stood 'bove her forest_

_For answers he could glean_

Well, he _was_ looking for answers...

Just as he had earlier, he looked over the gunnel. And there she was. Her hair and face were just as he remembered, but now he really _looked_. In the light of the moon he could see her tail beneath the waves; how the pale skin of her upper body slowly morphed into a long and lithe tail. Even underwater, the shine of her scales was radiant, reflecting an iridescent _greybluepurple_ up to jacks eyes. He had to know more.

The sides of their ship were designed well to keep the men safe, with thick climbing nets hanging down to the longboats, rather than simple rope ladders. It was as he scaled down these nets to the longboat nearest to her that he wondered if he was climbing to his doom, but the song swirling around through his thoughts quickly put his mind at ease. Before he knew it, he was in the longboat, face to face with a siren.


End file.
